Good mountain paths for the most part. We left the path east of Disgwylfa over rough ground for 600m to reach Sinc Giedd. Ideally it would have been better to remain on the path and camp further north of Sinc Giedd at Pwll y Cig (Grid Ref SN 81188 18345). However this area was occupied already.

Walk Description

The Black Mountain forms the western high ground of the Brecon Beacons National Park and should not be confused with the Black Mountains in the east of the same park. To add to this confusion the escarpment that stretches the length of the Black Mountain from Waun Lefrith to Fan Hir is also known as Bannau Sir Gaer & Carmarthen Fan. Either way, whatever the nomenclature this is a fantastic escarpment walk which should be undertaken on a good visibility day to appreciate the views on offer.

I was out today with Waggers - a chum from my days in the Navy who was getting some quality mountain days in for his Mountain Leader qualification. The start of this 2 day wild camp was from the Tafarn y Garreg pub in Glyntawe who had very kindly allowed us to leave our cars overnight in their car park. The intention over the 2 days was to walk just under 4 miles to a wild camping spot at Sinc Giedd then the following day make the transit over to Garreg Las from where we intended to walk to Waun Lefrith then on to the escarpment of Bannau Sir Gaer. To return to Glyntawe we would journey along the ridge of Fan Hir to descend via Allt Fach back to the start point.

After a bit of supper at the Tafarn y Garreg we headed out of the village at around 1830. The walk out to Sinc Giedd headed uphill to the south west where we had good views to Cribarth and Craig y Nos and looking behind us we were able to see the familiar outline of Fan Gyhirych. Turning to the north the walking then became scenically mundane but on a good path as it undulated gently to reach the lower slopes of Disgwylfa. Contouring around to the north we dropped down steeply to reach the dry river bed of the Afon Giedd to our wild camp spot on a grassy flat area next to it. In hindsight it may have been prudent to camp a bit further north where the river was in flow but we could see from the slopes of Disgwylfa that there were already a couple of tenants in situ.

After pitching the tents we headed up the slope of the opposite side of the dry river bed to watch a simply glorious sunset over to the west. This was an idyllic spot and the feeling of solitude when you wild camp in the middle of nowhere is a wonderful feeling. With the light fading we cracked open a bottle of grape and sat in the dry river bed before turning in about an hour later. The weather was set fair for tomorrow over the Fan - we would see.